Northwestern is known for a lot of things: its women’s lacrosse team, its sandy beaches that students are technically only allowed to use during the last 2 weeks of school because Northwestern is too cheap to hire lifeguards before Memorial Day, its socially awkward student body, and its “Ivy League of the Midwest” mentality. Yet amidst all of this, Northwestern’s absolutely incredible dining hall food has long been overlooked…that is, until today. It was just announced that Allison Dining Hall’s ‘Chicken a la King’ has won “America’s Best College Meal of the Year” award, beating out Scottsdale Community College’s famous ‘Spinach and Artichoke Dip,’ which was embarrassingly disqualified in the final round after being determined that it was in fact an appetizer, not a meal.

The chefs over at Allison Dining Hall were able to take Chicken a la King, a dish once thought of as Chicken Pot Pie’s disgustingly repulsive stepsister, and turn it into a delectable culinary masterpiece…one could even say, a meal fit for a king. That one person would be shot though, because that is an incredibly corny thing to say.

“I certainly didn’t get into the dining hall profession for the glamour or the awards,” says Allison Dining Hall’s head chef Jeff Pelter. “I mean, sure, I always knew I had a special talent when it came to cafeteria-style cooking. But for me, it’s always been about the kids. Seeing the smiles on their faces when they bite into reheated mass-produced chicken…well, it really doesn’t get any better than that.”

Not that Pelter takes all the credit. He does admit that he bought his now nationally-recognized Chicken a la King dish in the frozen food aisle of Sam’s Club, but he insists that there is a certain science to reheating that no one else can emulate.

“Sure, anyone can go pick up a Swanson Frozen Dinner, but it takes a connoisseur to know the exact moment when it’s ready to be taken out of the oven. And those puff pastries that it comes in, yeah, I added those.”

The bottom line is, it is easy to take dining hall food for granted. But when you think about it, if Northwestern was to shut down its dining halls and eradicate its meal plans, Northwestern students would most likely all die…or just go into Evanston where they could probably get better food for cheaper prices. But I believe it was former U.S. President William Taft who once said, “Great minds need great food.” Well, Northwestern students now have that great food, and its name is Chicken a la King.

– The Shmaily, C.J. Pumpernickel